Automatic painting machine having a plurality of separately controlled guns



Oct. l5, 1963 R, B, WAY ETAL 3,107,183

AUTOMATIC PAINTING MACHINE HAVINGI PLURALITY OF SEPARATELY CONTROLLED GUNS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 9, 1959 INVENTORS ROBERT wm cnm. D. HERSEY Oct. 15, 1963 RJB. WAY ETAL 3,107,183

AUTOMATIC PAINTING MACHINE HAVING A PLURLITY OF SEPARATELY CONTROLLED GUNS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 9, 1959 s Y MAW .IWS V.BH mma.. con Rm Cet. 15, 1963 R, B, WAY ETAL 3,107,183

AUTOMATIC PAINTING MACHINE HAVING A PLURALITY 0F SEPARATELY CONTROLLED GUNS Filed July 9, 1959 4 'Sheets-Sheet 3 m XM..

Oct. 15, 1963 R. B. WAY ETAL 3,107,183

AUTOMATIC PAINTING MACHINE HAVING A PLURALITY oF SEPARATELY coNTRoLLED GuNs 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed July 9, 1959 (u M /M T /w IED .wl A .mr V. B

United States Patent 3,107,183 AUTMATIC PAINTDIG MACHINE HAVING A sALlTY F SEPARATELY CONTRGLLED Robert G. Way, 1503 Chelsea Ave., and Carl D. Hersey, 3167 Marvin Ave., both of Erie, Pa. Filed July 9, 1959, Ser. No. 825,990 1 Claim. (Cl. 11S- 301) This invention relates to painting machines and, more particularly, to automatic painting machines lwhere, due to the nature of the work, it is necessary to move the guns applying the paint during the painting operation.

This application is a continuation in part of patent application, Serial No. 732,350, tiled May 1, 1958, which issued as Patent No. 3,039,431 on lune 19, 1962.

In the machine described in the said application, the paint lgun will only move across and back on the track in one complete cycle. Therefore, the machine described in the said application can -only spray a single color at one time or it can spray a plurality of colors by using several guns actuated simultaneously when they are separated by baffles.

lt has been discovered that in spraying a plurality of colors when a bathe is used to separate the several colors, when the colors are sprayed simultaneously and near each other, the air blast from one gun will distort the pattern from the other. This can be avoided by oiisetting the guns but this will necessitate turning on one gun before the other. Also, when it is desired to spray a priming coat and then another color over the priming coat in one machine operation, the machine disclosed in the prior application cannot accomplish this purpose. The circuit for controlling the machine described in the present application will accomplish such a result since the machine disclosed herein will paint a second color over top of the tirst color in one machine operation and, also, will prevent spray pattern distortion aforesaid.

More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved painting machine which is simple in construction, economical to manufacture, and simple and eicient to use.

Another obiect of the invention is to provide an improved control circuit in a painting machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide an air circuit wherein a plurality of paint guns can be controlled and one or more paint guns will spray paint for a predetermined time on an article of manufacture and these paint guns will shut oit and one or more second paint guns will be turned on to spray a second color.

With the above and other objects in view, the present invention consists of the combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and more particularly pointed out in the appended claim, it being understood that changes may be made in the form, size, proportions, and minor details of construction -without departing lfrom the spirit or sacrificing any ot the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the machine disclosed herein to a reduced scale;

yFIG. 2 is a partial view of the overhead operating n mechanism for the machine with certain parts omitted; iFlG. 3 is a top view of the driving mechanism shown in FIG. 3 with certain parts omitted;

FIG. 4 is an end view of the mechanism shown in FlGS. 2 and 3 with certain parts omitted showing the separately controlled paint guns in phantom;

FIG. 5 is a partial view of the gun tilting mechanism according to the invention;

ICC

FIG. 6 is a side View of the mechanism shown in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a piping to the invention.

Now with more speciic reference to the drawings especially IFIGS. l to 6, the machine is made up of a frame 1li@ having four spaced legs 161 which `support a top trame member 102. `On the top frame member 102 is supported an overhead reciprocating mechanism 103 which includes a Rotomation motor 194 and a gun carriage 113 having a gun tilting mechanism 83 thereon. Rotomation is a registered trademark indicating a motor such as disclosed in Patent Nos. 2,793,623 and 2,798,- 462. rShe motor 134 has a mounting plate 105 fixed thereto and has a slot 115 formed therein. The slot 115 receives a sliding bracket 112 which supports valves 18 and 23.

The valves 1S and 23 are connected together so that they slide in unison with the sliding bracket 112. Valves 17 and 28 `are slidably attached similar .to the valves 13 and 23 to the plate 165. A handle 117 extends through the bracket 112 and through the slot 115 and is threaded into a nut plate 124,. When the handle 117 is rotated to loosen it in the nut plate 124, the bracket 112 may be slid along the slot 115 in the mounting plate 165, thus adjustinnr the position of the valves 13 and 23 and thereby adjusting the stroke of the gun carriage 113. A suitable clamp may be provided for the valves 17 and Cover members 1% may constitute the top of a table and they are hat on top and supported on laterally disposed channel members 1117 and 193 which have angle members 199 attached to the lower ends thereof. Tracks in the form of longitudinally disposed rods 11G extend through holes in the vertical flanges of the angle members 169 and have nuts 111 thereon which :secure the rods 11i? in place whereby they are supported.

The `gun carriage 113 is made up of two blocks 135 and 133 held together by two l-trame members 116 which are connected by a plate 13d. Bores through the blocks 135 and 133 receive the track rods 11d and slide thereon. A plate 114 is attached to the inner side of the block 133. A cylinder 21 is attached to the front end of the plate 114 by means of screws 136 and a cylinder 22 is attached to the other end of the plate 114 by means of screws 137.

A longitudinally extending plate 137' is attached to the lower side of each block 133 and 135 and to each plate 137 is attached one ot the pillow bearings 133. An intermediate bearing 139 of a crank 85 is journalled in the pillow bearings 13S and crank arms 146 and 141 support gun supporting arms 142 and 143. An intermediate block 83 is clamped to the intermediate bearing 139 by a bolt 144. A block 83' has an arm 145 attached thereto and the -arm 145 has a vertical slot 146 therein.

The piston rods of the pistons in the cylinders 21 and 22 are integrally attached together. A laterally extending pin 147 is iixed to a rod 77 and extends radially therefrom and is received in the slot 146 in the arm 145. Since the bearing 139 is journalled in the blocks 13S, it cannot move but can only rotate and as the piston rod 77 moves 'from side to side, the arm 145 rotates the bearing 139 and swings the arms 142 and 143.

The top plate 130 is attached to plates 118 which are attached to a chain 119. The chain 119 passes around sprockets 124) and 121 and around a sprocket 122 which is attached to a shaft 123' of the Rotomation motor 164. The sprockets 129 and 121 are supported on shafts 150 and 151 which are journalled in pillow block bearings 123 which are, in turn, Xed to the cover members 166 of the overhead reciprocating mechanism 103.

diagram of the machine according As the Rotomation motor 194 rotates, its sprocket 122 rotates with it and this drives the chain 119, thereby causing the carriage |113 to traverse on the track rods 119. The plates 118 are held in place by screws 149 and may be moved to adjust the tension of the chain 119. The motor 104 is constructed such that when oil is forced therethrough in one direction, the motor 104 rotates in a first direction and when the oil is forced ltherethrough in a second direction, the motor 164 rotates in the opposite direction. Therefore, when oil is forced through the motor 104 in one direction, -it will move the gun carriage 113 to the right and when the oil iiow is reversed, it will move the `gun carriage 113 to the left.

A rest pad 129 is attached to the upper end of a square piston rod 126 for supporting a part 131 to be painted. The piston rod i126 is square in cross section to prevent it from rotating during its upward and downward travel.

A mask 132 is generally rectangular in shape and its ends are received in slots 134 in rods 14S. The rods 148 are xed to support members 152 which are in turn fixed to base plates 153 in turn lixed to a plate 154. The plate 154 is -xed to a lower frame member 159. The lower frame members 159 are iixed to the legs 101.

When air is supplied in a cylinder 125 below a piston 127 (FG. 7), the piston rod v126 will raise the rest pad 129 and the part 131 to `bring the part 131 into a concavity located in the central portion of the mask 132. The concavity will tbe lin the form of a counterpart of the surface of the part to be painted with openings therethrough to allow paint from guns 162 to be deposited on the exposed areas of the part. The mask 132 is of the type in general use with automatic painting machinery.

The air and hydraulic circuit is shown in FIG. 7 and discloses a cam 16 which is attached to the shaft 123' (FIGS. 2, 3 and 4) of the Rotomation motor 104. The oil circuit for the Rotomation motor 104 is made up of pipes 30, 31, and 32 and a pump 33 which is driven at a constant rate of speed. The tiow of oil through the pipes 30, 31, and -32 is controlled by valves 14 and 25 as well as restricting check valves 35 and 36 which each allow oil to flow freely in fone direction but check the iiow thereof in the other direction and meter the flow, thereby checking the movement of the motor 104. The pump 33 is supplied fluid from a sump 39 and the pump 33 discharges iiuid through the valves 25 and 114 to the Rotomation motor 104.

Air is supplied through a line 40 at a suitable pressure and it flows through a iilter 41 and to a pipe 42. From the pipe 42, it iiows through pressure regulators 43a and 43]: to lines 44a and 44b at a predetermined pressure to the atomizing air supply on the guns 162 and 162. This pressure may be observed on gauges 45 and 45b- Air from the tiiter 41 yfurther passes through a lubricator 53 into a line 54 which is the main air supply line to the machine.

A check valve 53' is connected between the lubricator 53 and the line 54 so that when air to the line 40 is shut o, air in the line 54 will not force lubricant from the lubricator 53' into the supply line 40 which will iiow into the actuating air pipe 42 when the machine is re-started. This lubricant would contaminate the paint at the guns 162 and 162.

Air from the pipe 42 is also connected to the main air passage of a starting valve 46 which is a manually controlled valve having a manual control 47 thereon which may be operated either by the hand or by the foot of an operator and which controls the ow lof air either to a control line 43 and thence to a cutout valve 49 or to a line i) which is connected to a pilot control 51 of a valve 26. The line 50 exhausts through an exhaust 52 when the manually controlled valve 46 is turned oi.

With the machine disclosed herein, the cut-out valve 49 will pass through a predetermined amount of air and will then shut oif. There is air going lthrough the starting valve 46 through the line 48 to the cut-out valve 49 and the air cannot pass through the cut-out valve 49 until the pressure behind it is discharged and air pressure is again put on it. Therefore, to start the machine, the operator actuates the starting valve 46 which may be a foot pedal or a hand actuated spring return four-way valve. This exhausts the line 43 and exhausts the cut-out valve 49. At the same time, air iiows from the pipe 42 through 'the valve 46 and the line 50 to the pilot control 51 of the valve 26. The pilot control 51 opens the valve 26, passing air from a regulator 167 and a line 97 through lines 98 and 164 to the cylinder 125 which raises the piston 127, forcing the part 131 to be painted into the mask 132. The piston 127 will hold the part clamped until the end of the cycle during which a timer 322 times out as will later appear. A complete cycle is a complete movement of the carriage from start at one side to stop at the other and return.

When the starting control valve 46 is released, a spring 61 reverses it land it comes back to the position shown. Thus, when the valve 46 is actuated, it allows air to pass first through the line 50 to the pilot control 51 on the valve 26 connecting air to a pipe 1164 and then through the valve 46, the line `48, through the cut-out Valve 49 and a line 60 to pilots 149 and 150 on timers 322 and 321, charging them. The timers 321 Iand 322 will be forced closed by springs 325 and 326 after a time interval determined by the setting of throttles 118' and 119'.

The piston V127 does -not drop when the foot pedal is released because the valve 26 which controls it is a double piloted valve and it remains open until it is closed by air from the valve 17 through a valve 128 after the timer 322 times out as the cam 16 rotating clockwise engages the valve 17.

No time delay in ythe airl circuit is necessary between the actuation of the cylinder and the actuation of the guns 162 and r162. The amount of time required to to press the foot pedal down; that is, to actuate the valve 46, to let it up, and to actuate the several valves is enough for the air piston t127 to completely push the part 131 into place in the mask 132 before the gun 162 starts to move so there is no positive mechanical linkage necessary to delay the starting of the gun carriage 1113. When the foot pedal is released, the cut-out valve 49 will pass air to pilots 149' and 150 and the timers 321 and 322 which will operate and pass air to lines 124 and 250.

Air in the line 250 is connected to a pilot 143 on the valve 128. It will shift the pilot 143 and hold it shifted with a line 129 connected to exhaust until the timer 322 times out and closes. Air in the line 124 is impressed on a pilot of a valve 126 and it will shift the valve 126 to connect a line 264 to a line 265b to actuate the paint gun 162. The gun 162 will thus be connected to the line 264 but main line air Will be cut otf therefrom each time a cam 70 approaches home position and the valve 17 is actuated, putting air in a line 94, a pilot 95, and closing a valve 15 to disconnect the line 54, thereby stopping the paint gun spray while the acrriage 113 is reversing.

Air pressure in the line 250 flows through a valve 11 to a line 13 and the air flows through the line 13 to a pilot 62 of a left hand hydraulic valve 14 and opens the valve 14. Air from the line 13 also flows to a pilot 63 on the three-way valve 15. When the valve 15 is thus opened, air flows therethrough from the line 54 through a line 231 and a valve 20 to a line 264, the valve 126', a shut-olf valve 66b, a quick exhaust valve 67h to a line 63h, and thence to the spray guns 162. The hydraulic valve 14 which has been opened by the pilot 62 passes hydraulic uid from the pipe 32 to the pipe 30 and thence to the Rotornation motor 104 which starts the cam 16 rotating counterclockwise at the same time or slightly before the gun starts to spray.

The iirst portion of rotation of he cam 16 to the valve 17 is not effective on counterclockwise rotation as the valve 17 operates only when the timing cam 16 is rotating clockwise The valve 18 operates only when the cam 16 is turning counterclockwise and does not operate when the cam 16 is rotating clockwise. Therefore, the valve 14, having opened, will pass oil to the motor 164 and the cam 16 will be rotated counterclockwise. Since the shaft 123' is also connected to the sprocket 122, the gun carriage 113 will move to the right.

This movement will continue past the valve 17 not affected until the cam 70 strikes an actuating member 71 on the valve 18. This will open the valve 18, passing air from the valve 1S and the line 54 to a line 72 and to a pilot 84 of a four-way valve 19. This will actuate the pilot S4 on the valve 19 and connect air from the line 54 to a line 74 which operates the gun tilting mechanism through a flow control valve 56 and the cylinder 21 having a piston 76 therein connected to the piston rod 77 to tilt the guns in the return direction. Air also flows from the line 72 to a pilot 132 of the gun shut-off valve 20 which is closed, thus shutting off the spray guns 162 while they are being tilted for the return stroke and While the motor 164 is reversing. The cam engages the member 71 on the valve 18 just before the end of the stroke so that as the gun carriage 113 reaches a point near the end of its travel toward the right, the piston rod 77 will act through the pin 147, the block 83', and the crank arms 140 and 141 (FG. l) to incline the guns 162 and 162 indicated by the arrows in 1:1G. 7 and cause them to direct their spray in the other direction. The guns 162 will be shut off just before they start to tilt.

The cam 16 continues its rotation until the cam surface 70 strikes an actuating member 66 on the threeway valve 23 at the end of the stroke of the cam 16. When the valve 23 is opened, air is passed from the line 54 to a line 87 and then to a pilot 12' of the valve 11, a pilot 89 of the valve 24, and a pilot 90 of the valve The valve 11 is thus closed, exhausting the pilot 62 of the valve 14 and the pilot 63 of the valve 15.

Pressure on the pilot 39 of the valve 24 opens the valve 24, passing air from the line 54 to a line 91 to a pilot 61 of the valve 24 and a pilot 611 of the valve 14. This action closes the valve 14 and opens the valve 25 which causes the Rotomation motor 164 to reverse its motion to a clockwise rotation. The passage of air to the pilot 9G of the valve 29 opens the valve 26, permitting actuating air to flow from the line 54 through the begin stroke gun shut-off valve 15, a line 64, the end gun shut-otf valve 29, a line 65, the shut-off valve 66h, the quick exhaust valve 67b, and the line 68h to the spray guns 162, turning them on to spray as the carriage 113 moves to the left.

The valve 25 is opened, the valve 14 is closed, and the motor 164 is reversed and now rotates clockwise, thus moving the carriage 113 to the left. The guns 162 have been turned on when the gun shut-off valve 2t) is opened and the tilting mechanism is tilted so that the guns 162 now spray and are inclined in the oposite direction and the spray will continue as the cam 16 rotates clockwise past the valve 1S which is not affected by clockwise rotation of the cam 16. When the cam 16 opens the valve 17, the air from the line 54 flows therethrough to the line 94 to pilots 337, 95, and 371 of the valves 126', 15, and 123.

The valve shuts olf the spray guns 162 and the three-way valve 126' is not affected if the timer 321 has not timed out but if the timer 321 has timed out, no pressure will be on the pilot 140 so the valve 126 will shift and the line 264 will be connected to a line 26551. The piston rod 126 of the cylinder 125 which has been holding the part being painted tightly in the mask 132 will continue to hold it unless the timer 322 has timed out since pressure on the pilot 371 will be balanced by the member 143. 1f the timer 322 had timed out, air would be shut olf from the line 250 and the 6 part would be lowered, dropping the part down out of the mask 132.

The cam 16 continues to rotate past the valve 17 until the surface 76 engages a member 163 on the valve 2S. Air from the line 74 through the Valve 28 flows to a pilot 155 of the valve 25 from a line 156 and closes the valve 25. The air in a line 56 also flows to a pilot 158 of the valve 24 and closes the valve 24, exhausting the line 91 to the pilotstt and 61. Air from the line 156 also actuates a pilot 157 on the valve 19. When air is applied to the pilot 157 of the valve 19, it reverses the air flow through the valve 19, applying air to a line S1 and to an air cylinder 22. This moves the piston rod 77 to the left and tilts the gun holding mechanism, including the crank arms 146 and 141. Y

The gun carriage 113 will continue to reciprocate from side to side with the guns 162 and 162' being shut olf by the left stroke gun shut-off valve 15 at the left end of each stroke and re-started again as the carriage 113 starts on its right hand stroke. This cycling will continue until both timers 321 and 322 time out. When the timers 321 and 322 time out, the iirst time thereafter that the cam 16 engages the actuating member on the valve 2S, air is applied to the pilot 155, stopping the motor, and the gun does not start on another stroke because air is now shut olf from the line 259.

When the paint gun 162 has been reciprocated one or more cycles by the motor 104 and the carriage 113, depending upon the setting of the timer 321, the timer 321 will time out and air will be cut off from the line 124 and the pilot 1411', allowing the gun selector valve l126 to be shifted to the position shown the first time the cam 16 engages the Valve 17 after the timer 321 has timed out. This Will connect the line 264 to the line 265a and to the gun 162. The line 265a will remain connected to the line 264 during the remainder of the painting cycle; that is, until the timer 321 is again actuated.

The action of the valves 24, 15, and 20 will be the same as previously described and the gun carriage 113 will continue to reciprocate until the timer 322 times out. Then air will be shut olf from the line 256 and the motor 164 will be stopped Ithe first time the cam 16 engages the followers 163 thereafter.

Therefore, the carriage 113 will be started reciprocating back and forth when the valve 46 is actuated and will continue to reciprocate until the timer 322 times out. The actuating line ofthe paint gun 162 will be connected to `main line air until the timer 321 times out painting as the gun moves. The guns are shut olf at each end of each cycle of travel of the carriage 113 during the time the guns are being tilted in the direction of movement of the next part of the cycle and while the carriage 113 is reversing. rfile gun 162 remains shut od and the gun 162 is turned on at the end of the cycle following the timing out of the timer 321 and both guns are turned off and the part being painted is unclamped at the end of the cycle during which the timer 322 times out.

A valve 139 is installed in the circuit as a safety feature which permits the operator to lower the part 131 out of the mask 132 at any time during the cycle. It is a manually operated valve having a manually actuated member 181 which, when actuated, connects air from the line 54 through a check valve 165 to a pilot 96 of the valve 26. Air on the pilot 96 will close the valve 26, thus exhausting the line 98, the line 164, and the cylinder 125 whose return spring will then lower the piston rod 126 and drop the part 131 down out of the mask 132.

The manually operated Valves 128 may be used to test or clean the spray guns 162 and 162 when the machine is at rest. The flow control valves 35 and 36 control the liow of oil from the motor 104 and are used to adjust the speed of the gun carriage 113. Flow control valves 177 and 56 are used to adjust the speed with which the guns 162 and 162 are tilted at the end of each stroke.

Flow control valves 99 and 99' are used to control the ascent and descent of the piston rod 126 of lthe cylinder 125.

The Vforegoing specification sets forth the invention in its :preferred practical forms but it is understood that the structure shown is capable of modication Within a range of equivalents Without departing from the invention which is to Ibe understood is lbroadly novel as is commensurate with the appended claim.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are dened as follows:

A machine for painting articles of manufacture comprising a frame, track means on said frame, a carriage on said track means reciprocabie thereon, a motor and paint guns on said carriage, liquid means driving said Kmotor smoothly at a constant velocity to reciprocate said carriage on said track means, a paint mask mounted on said frame, means to stop said motor and to reverse the movement thereof on said track means, said carriage moving with said guns thereon in proximity to said mask to spray paint thereon, air means to actuate said liquid means and said yguns to spray paint on said mask while Said carriage is moving, means to stop the spraying of said guns before the movement of said carriage is stopped, a first timer and a second timer, means connecting said first timer to said rst gun for controlling the time said rst gun is turned on and maintaining said second gun in turned olf condition While said iirst gun is turned on, said rst timer turning said second gun on and said first gun off when said first gun has been turned on a predetermined time, said `second timer turning both said guns oit when the sum of the time beth said guns have been on reaches a predetermined'value.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNTED STATES PATENTS Szczepanski Dec. 27, 

